Blood and Fangs
by turtlekorn
Summary: Zero and Damian are two best friends running from the law. Except the "law" is actually a secret organization that specializes in genetic engineering. And there's also bloodthirsty wolf-men. And both young men aren't exactly "normal". As they fight to survive, they learn how to deal with their abnormalities. And girls. (OC story) (blood, potty mouth, self-harm)
1. Chapter 1

**i'm not new to the maximum ride series, but i AM new to writing a fanfic about it. so if it's really weird and/or boring or just kinda sucks really huge balls,i'm sorry. anywhores, none of the ~actual~ characters from the series are gonna be in this story, but the basics are still here: Erasers, evil scientists, runaway mutants, mayhaps some lovey-dovey shit later on, but i'm not gonna make any promises about that. **

**oh, shout-out to my awesome partner in crime, D the Knight, whom i tortured mercilessly until he let me put him in this story. **

**okay, onwards to the first chapter~**

* * *

Have you ever been locked up inside a dog cage in a dark laboratory that reeks, trying hard not to think about how badly you have to fucking piss? Guess not.

"I'm gonna get a fucking urinary tract infection at this rate! They need to hurry up and let us the fuck out." I rock back and forth a bit, which doesn't help much.

"Maybe if you stopped squirming, you'd be able to hear the commotion outside."

What? My ears ring with the silence in the lab.

"In case you forgot, Damian, I don't have super amazing wolf senses." I look over at the cage directly across the room from me, where I can barely make out the figure of my best friend.

"Keep listening."

After a few minutes of straining my ears, I finally hear it. Banging, scraping, yelling. A fight amongst the Erasers, maybe? They tend to do that when they're bored.

"There's a breakout." I can hear the smile in Damian's voice. He has a plan, I can tell.

"Would you like to share your thoughts with the rest of the class, D?"

"We follow the crowd."

"Wow. And you've thought long and hard about this?" I roll my eyes.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Now tell me, Mr. Brilliant, how do you suppose we 'follow the crowd' when we're in these fucking things?" I rattle the side of my cage for emphasis.

He chuckles. Because this whole situation is _so_ fucking hilarious. "Is your piss flooding your brain, Z? We're gonna break out, of course." Damian says that last bit a little slow, as if I'm really fucking slow. I glare at him. Asshole.

"Oh, well then, after you."

He takes a deep breath and starts to morph. I can hear the metal cage straining to keep him in place, but after a few seconds of snarling, the whole cage burst and he rushes to me. He fumbles around with the lock in his teeth. He's almost as big as a horse in his wolf form.

"Sometime today would be nice, D."

He huffs and breaks the lock. I scramble out and brush myself off. He grabs the collar of my lab shirt and tosses me on his back.

"This wouldn't be considered as gay, would it?" I grab a handful of his fur as he runs through the sliding metal doors and out into the huge hallway. His fur is jet black and sort of coarse.

He turns his head to roll a huge reddish-brown eyeball at me.

There's a bunch of Erasers blocking the middle of the hallway, facing away from us. As we get closer, I see that they're blocking the path of a group of four mutants.

"Out of our way, mutts!" One of the kids, a girl, yells.

The Erasers all rush at the kids. Damian runs straight through the scuffle, wincing as a ball of fire barely grazes one of his legs. I briefly smell burnt fur.

After a few seemingly random turns, we end up crashing though a two story window. I hit the ground a few feet away from Damian, who is already scrambling to his feet. Freedom hurts like a motherfucker.

* * *

**i know, i know, it's kinda boring and blahblahblah (i kinda rushed it, honestly) BUT i'm hoping you'll stick around. guess you don't HAVE to. **

**sorry for making you seem like a total asshole, D. you're the comedic relief. or something. **


	2. Chapter 2

**it took me two days to write this because i'm horrible. the worst part is that it's shorter than i thought. and i've re-read it so many times that it doesn't make any sense? fuck it all.**

* * *

We landed in the training field, where about twenty other mutants are trying to fight off Erasers.

I run alongside Damian, towards the ten-foot electric fence. Some kids just fucking fly over it. Lucky bastards.

"Do you dig well at all?" I yell over the fights going on around us as we get to the fence. Damian nods and immediately starts clawing at the grass under him.

An Eraser lumbers over to us, swiping his paws out randomly. I stand in place behind Damian, feeling the Eraser's claws rake at my chest. Good.

"You really shouldn't have done that, mutt." I grit through my teeth, taking a deep breath. The blood that oozes from the four claw marks on my chest turns into long spikes and hardens. I jut my chin out and the spikes go flying at the Eraser's face. He howls in pain and then is cut off by a spike to the throat.

Damian barks behind me, standing on the other side of the fence with a coat of dirt on his fur. I crawl through the short tunnel and climb on his back.

"Again, no homo." I mutter. He takes off into the night with another roll of his eyes and a heavy huff.

/ / several months later / /

"Hand me that stick, Ro."

"Yes, Your Highness." I snort.

"If you weren't my best fucking friend, I swear..." Damian trails off, half-joking. He shakes the dreads out of his face as he pokes at the small fire we have going.

"Yeah yeah, sure." I lay down on the cool grass. We're camping out in a forest somewhere in Minnesota. We've been here for two days.

"Hey, Zero?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you havin' trouble sleeping again?"

I look at him. The fire casts weird shadows on Damian's face, making him look way older than he is. He already looks older than me, despite the fact that I'm a year older. Puberty hit him harder than me.

"Is it that obvious?" I shift my gaze to the fire.

"Yeah." He pokes the fire, sending little sparks up in the air.

"What, did you notice that when I took watch for a whole week straight?"

"Pretty much." He shrugs, but I can see that there's something else. I let it drop.

"So, we headin' out tomorrow?" I pick at the grass.

"That's the plan," he looks at me, suddenly serious. "You should get some sleep, Zero."

What, do I talk in my sleep? I raise an eyebrow at him, but he's looking up at the stars. I close my eyes and get to sleep unusually quickly.

"Ro. Ro, get your bony ass up. It's morning." Damian shakes my shoulder. I open my eyes and squint against the brightening sky. I hiss and throw an arm over my face. Damian tosses me a bag of Doritos.

"Ah, breakfast of champions," I rip open the bag, "did you use the last of the money on this?"

"Yeah, but I got some first-aid shit, too. And I might've gotten a pack of smokes." He smirks and pats his pocket.

"I told you that scrubbing toilets would pay off eventually, D."

Damian opens the pack of cigarettes and takes two out. "Ya know, people might say we're fuckin' stupid for smoking. 'Specially since we're on the run and whatnot." He lights one on the dying embers of our campfire and takes a long drag.

"What the fuck would they know, though?" Damian passes me the other cigarette. I wipe my cheese-dusted fingers on my jeans and take it. "Their lives aren't constantly threatened. Not like us, anyway."

We smoke in silence for a while. I stomp mine out and stretch.

"But seriously," Damian squishes his onto the dirt beside him, "I think we should lay off the smokes. For now, anyway. We're easier to track when we reek."

"But I like the smell." I sigh. He's right, though. Of course. It can't be helped. I cover our campfire with dirt. Damian slings his pack over one shoulder and heads west. I trudge after him, reluctantly noticing how he's almost a head taller than me. The guy looks like he's a boxer, whereas I look like... A barely legal kid on the run. Which is true.

After almost an hour of trekking through trees, we come across a road. "Is this the road you took to get to the gas station?" I look up and down the asphalt. There's nothing but trees in every direction.

"It's that way," he points north. "From what I heard, it's the only gas station for miles. I vote we just follow the road this way." West. What's over there, though? Damian has insisted we keep going west ever since we escaped from that hellhole a few months ago. I shrug and follow. He_ is_ the unofficial leader, after all.

"What exactly are we going to find out west, Damian?" I ask after we come across an abandoned car a few hours later.

"Damn, we can't hot wire it," he looks up from the rusty car's window, "I don't know. It's hard to explain." Silence. "I have a feeling... that we need to meet someone out there." He continues walking.

"Wow. Is it a girl?" I snicker, hitching my pack up my shoulders. He sighs and scratches the back of his head.

"I'm pretty sure it is." He pointedly looks away.

"Oh my fuck, D, seriously? We're running for our lives and all you can think about is some fuckin' chick?" I'm joking, but Damian throws me such a serious look that I shut my yap and don't open it for another hour.

The guy hasn't had one girlfriend his whole entire genetically engineered life and now we're basically risking our fucking lives for a bitch I've never met, and I doubt he has, either.

Ah, young love.

* * *

**are you puking at the horrible plot yet? **


	3. Chapter 3

**i think it's fucking physically impossible for me to write long chapters of any kind. guess it's my thing.**

* * *

_BANG-BANG-BANG!_

"C'MERE, YA FUCKIN' _FREAKS_!"

A bullet barely grazes my left arm. Damian dodges a knife with almost lazy ease. I sometimes really fucking hate his heightened senses.

"_YA CAN'T RUN AWAY FOREVER!_" The lone Eraser bellows from behind us, brandishing a machine-gun hand and several knives.

"We can sure as fuck try, though!" I quickly sift through my pack and throw a can of food at his head. It conks him just below his eye. This guy found us almost an hour after we stopped at another gas station. We were apparently about another day's walk from the next town, and now we've gotten a bit off course.

"Should we fight 'im_ mano-a-mano?_" I ask as we run.

Damian nods gravely. "He'll just keep findin' us at this rate. We're probably gonna have to kill him."

I set my jaw. "I'm strangely okay with that." Damian somehow manages to smirk while dodging another knife.

"You take him head-on and I'll get him from the back."

I nod and stop in my tracks, easing into a fighting stance. I throw my pack on the damp floor. Bullet Arm snarls and charges at me. He throws a knife, which slices past my shoulder. I take a breath and the blood that had started spreading through my shirt shoots out in thick needles and zoom through the air into Bullet Arm's face. Another breath and the needles liquefy and cover his eyes, then harden. He claws at his face with his good arm and tumbles to the ground.

Damian suddenly comes up from behind, already fully morphed, and smashes his body against Bullet Arm. A knife falls out of his belt and Damian swipes a huge paw at it towards me. I pick it up and get a tight grip on it as I step in front of the Eraser. He grunts under Damian's weight.

"Who sent you?" I kneel down, knicking the point of the blade against his forehead. He snarls, snapping his jaws at me. Damian slowly bears his weight down harder the more the Eraser struggled. After a few long minutes, he let out a heavy breath.

"His name's Connor. James Connor. Works for Umbra. That's all I'm tellin' ya'll." He quickly frees his normal arm, snatches the knife right out of my hand and slits his own throat. His breathing hitches, gurgles and stops.

"What... the fuck?" I look at Damian, who looks taken aback. He runs off to morph back and throw on his clothes.

"Have you ever heard of any of that shit?" He retrieves his pack and tosses mine at my feet.

"No. The name James Connor sorta rings a bell, but Umbra is new to me." We start walking again.

"You know who Connor is?"

"I don't know the guy personally or anything; the Whitecoats mentioned him once or twice. By the way they talked about him, he's kind of the shit within the science community. Or something."

"He must know something about us." He says thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "Maybe he's hunting down the other mutants that escaped."

"That would kinda make sense."

Damian digs through his pack and throws some gauze at me. "You're gonna reek of cigarettes and blood if you don't clean that." He tosses me a bottle of water, too.

"Yeah, thanks." The wound was already starting to heal, but I pour on some water on it anyway and wrap it up.

"We should rest up in the next town." Damian puts the gauze back in his pack. "We can bail after a few hours of sleep and a few provisions."

"What exactly do you mean by_ provisions?_"

"Weapons, of course." He smirks. "We have to pack some heat now that we're being tracked, Ro. Who knows? Maybe the next fuckers'll probably be robots or some shit. We'd better be prepared."

"So basically, we're gonna steal a few guns, right?"

"Now you're gettin' it!" Damian punches my arm. I roll my eyes, but smile anyway. Our lives aren't completely boring, at least. Just a little... complicated.

* * *

**mutants with guns. fuck yeah.**


	4. Chapter 4

**yo. i sorta feel like i'm rushing with this. but that's probably just me. **

* * *

It's almost 2 AM. Damian's snoring loudly in the bed, which is a bit too small for him. I'm sitting by the window. Not sleeping. We're holed up in this shitty motel room at the moment; the middle-aged, balding clerk at the front desk with the bad attitude and a weird accent probably thought we were a couple by the way he raised a thick eyebrow at us. Or maybe he knows we're mutants... _Nah._

I stare out of the grimy window. There's nothing but trees and sky to look at. My two favorite things. A movement across the street catches my eye. Something glints in the dim light of the motel's sign. Before I know what's going on, there's a muffled bang, the window in front of me shatters and the wind is knocked out of me. My body slams against the wall and onto the ground.

"You alright?" Damian growls beside me. There's glass on his hair.

"The fuck's goin' on?" I creep to the window and peek out of the corner.

"Does this answer your question?" Damian picks up a bullet from the carpet.

"Bail or fight?" I feel the adrenaline coursing already.

"C'mon!" He hisses, grabbing our packs and flinging the door open. My bag is heavier than before. I take a quick peek inside and find four pistols and several boxes of ammunition. When did he...?

"This way, Z!" He runs to the back of the motel, where the emergency exit is. The alarm doesn't go off, but the clerk (and possibly the only actual employee in the whole fucking motel) blocks our way.

"I help, boys?" He asks, flashing an ugly yellow-toothed smile. Damian tries to throw a punch at him, but he quickly dodges and presses a shiny black gun against my best friend's head.

"Come with me, I take to boss." He looks at me and then at Damian.

"Go to hell," Damian morphs and rams his head against the man's chest. The air leaves the man's body with a weird _whoosh_ and he goes down. The gun in his hand clatters to the ground at my feet. I pick it up. There's a strange symbol where the hammer is. A wolf's head with a snake coming out of its mouth and words encircling the animals in a different language.

"You work with Umbra?" I take the safety off and point the gun at his head. He pants and takes a few seconds to throw a terrified glance at the huge black wolf looming over him before nodding.

"And who's the mystery shooter out there?"

"T-trained to kill... Mutants a-are targets."

"Who's James Connor?"

He gasps. "N-no say name, no say!" A few shuddering breaths. "H-he boss. Very smart." A hysteric laugh escapes him.

"Interesting. Well, it's been nice chatting with you," I step closer, "and just so we're clear, Baldy? This is my best friend, not my lover." I pull the trigger and gore splatters everywhere.

That isn't the coolest thing ever said before shooting someone but hey, I've never shot anybody before. And I have to say, it feels fucking awesome.

Damian shakes the blood off of his fur and jerks his head to the side. _Turn around._ I spin on my heel and wait until I hear him zip up his pack before I turn back around.

"We've gotta get rid of the other bastard, too. I'm gonna shoot this one." He smirks and holds out his hand. I roll my eyes and give him the shiny black gun.

"How come you get to kill the assassin and I had to shoot the damn motel clerk?"

He shrugs. "Guess I'm just lucky. And cooler."

"Whatever, asshole. You didn't have to morph, ya know." We slowly step outside into the back parking lot.

"Heat of the moment, I guess." He looks at the engraving on the gun. "Umbra, huh? Weird shit."

"No shit." I reach into my pack and grab one of the pistols. It's already loaded.

Damian spins around suddenly, "Z, look ou-"

"Drop the gun, wolf-boy."

I feel cool metal against my scalp. The voice behind me is definitely female.

"You can drop yours too." The woman wraps an arm around my neck, steadily applying pressure.

"Let him go." Damian growls, tightening his grip on his gun.

"I think I'll take this one with me."

"Not a chance, bitch." I snap my head back, smash an elbow against the woman's stomach and knock her weapon out of her hand. It turns out to be the same gun the bald man had.

"Part of Umbra, huh?" I pant, rubbing my neck. "How nice!"

"Tell us who you are," Damian comes up beside me, "and we might consider not killing you."

The woman is wearing a weird ninja-like garb, complete with a mask that covers half of her face. One of her eyes is blue, the other is almost white.

"My name is Veera and you can both fuck off!" She reaches for something at her waist and throws something on the ground. There's a flash and thick smoke obscures my vision.

"Damn it!" Damian spins around, brandishing the gun, but the ninja woman is already gone.

"Great, now we have fucking ninja ladies to worry about." I wipe the sweat off my face on my shirt and shove the pistol into the waistband of my jeans.

"This Umbra shit is fucking insane." Damian runs a hand through his dreads. "We have to keep moving."

"Can we grab a bite, though? I'm fuckin' starving."

"You're gonna have to wait a while, Ro. We have to put some distance between us and this scene; wouldn't want to add legal troubles to the list, right?"

"Sure, yeah."

"Okay then, get on." He puts his gun in his bag and tosses the bag at me.

"What?"

He morphs in response, daring to flash a wolfish grin at me before I heave myself onto his back. He's enjoying this way too much.

* * *

**ninjas and weird-accented motel clerks and evil organizations and mutants, oh my! **


	5. Chapter 5

**wow, this took forever to write for some reason. i had a hard time concentrating. ooooops. i need inspiration of some sort. soon. **

* * *

/ / Inside Umbra's HQ, 4:13 AM / /

A fist slams against expensive dark oak wood, making the woman in front of the desk blink. Her back is rim-rod straight as the man before her rages. "Damn it, Veera, I hired you because you're the best of the best and you let the mutants get away?!"

"I apologize, Mr. Connor." Was all the woman said. She had quickly changed into a black dress and heels before reporting to James Connor because she knew how ridiculous her ninja outfit seemed to him.

"Mm-hmm." He runs a hand through his full head of black hair, which looks permanently windswept. His blue eyes bore into Veera's. She watches as he takes several deep breathes and sits at his desk.

"No matter; we'll get them eventually. Sooner rather than later, Veera, understand?"

The woman nods. He waves a hand lazily in the air, dismissing her. As she walks out of his glass office and into the dim hallway, she silently curses the two gun-slinging teenagers . Mr. Connor had said the seemingly older one is a new type of Eraser. The other boy, who was actually the oldest, is supposed to be for some sort of military use. Which is why James Connor wanted them both dead.

She would make sure to have their blood on her hands. She couldn't help wondering why he didn't just kill them both before they escaped. _They're just lucky, _she thought bitterly, _but not for long._

/ / A diner, 5 AM / /

"Sorry for interrupting your breakfast, gentlemen, but do you guys have a minute? I just have a few questions."

We're in some dingy diner, chowing down on burgers and fries. A police officer is standing by our table. He's weirdly young, maybe in his late twenties, and tired. I look at Damian with a fry sticking out of my mouth. He turns to the officer and smiles.

"Go ahead, Officer."

"There's been a shooting at the Lazy Dayz Motel about 40 miles from this town. Do you two know anything about that, maybe you heard something out of the ordinary or saw something suspicious?"

I purposely stuff my face and shake my head. He nods at me and looks at Damian, who frowns apologetically, "Sorry, Officer, but we don't have any information; we're heading that way. I'm sorry we can't be of any help."

The man nods and smiles wearily. "Don't worry about it, fellas. Enjoy your breakfast and stay safe, alright?"

"Will do, sir, thanks."

The officer gives a final nod and drifts to the other occupied tables. Damian smirks as he takes a bite out of his burger. "I'm damn good, Ro, you can't deny that."

I throw a fry at him which, of course, he dodges. We finish eating and slip out into the parking lot and quickly make our way through the small town. People take a few long seconds to look at us. What, they've never seen tourists before?

"They're making my fuckin' skin crawl," I hitch my pack up my shoulder, "hand me the smokes, will you?"

"I think you have a problem, Z." Damian says as he fishes around in his pocket. I can't tell if he's serious or not. Probably both.

"Yeah? When did you become a doctor?" I scoff, taking a cigarette and putting the rest in my bag. "Aw, fuck me." I mutter.

"What?"

"No light." I stick the cigarette behind my ear.

"You're lucky you have me." Damian smirks as he always does and hands me a red lighter.

"You're a life saver!" I take a long sweet drag and let the toxic chemicals saturate my lungs. "Damn, feels good."

"Fuck yeah," he lights his own, "do you really think this shit'll end up killing us, though?"

"Shit no, I'd rather shoot myself than die of lung cancer. Besides, nowadays there's chemo and shit like that. Hell, we'll probably die of old age or something." I make a face, "I'd rather not make it to 90, though. Personally."

"I'll end up outliving you anyway." He throws his half-smoked cigarette on the sidewalk, suddenly thoughtful.

We walk silently, which is starting to happen a lot more now, and by the time we hit the town limits, I'm on my third cigarette. Maybe I _might_ possibly perhaps really actually have a problem. _Maybe._

* * *

**fuck, i was laughing SO HARD while writing the second part cos i was like "D talkin to police officers? naaaaah." ISN'T THAT FUCKING HILARIOUS? anyways, now time to work on my other fuckin story.**


	6. Chapter 6

**QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE IS CURRENTLY MY LIFE. okay, now to the chapter.**

* * *

"Damn, damn,_ DAMN_!" I curse with every knife thrust I dodge, getting nicked twice on the arm. Damian isn't breaking a fucking sweat and here I am, gasping for air and sweating straight through both shirts I'm wearing.

We're sparring in a small forest clearing about three miles from the last town. It's easier for us to settle in a forest because that way, we have a clear escape route. Damian had attacked me from out of nowhere as soon as we stepped foot in this clearing. Bastard.

"Ya know, you can attack any time, Z." He has the gall to smirk and joke around when I'm supposed to be training. What a good friend.

Damian lunges and sinks the blade into my left arm. Blood immediately starts seeping past the blade. Gritting my teeth, I tighten my muscles and my blood hardens. Damian tries to pull the blade out, but he can't. I smirk at him and twist my arm hard and fast so that the hilt of the knife slips right out of his grip. Breathing out, I grab the knife from my arm as my blood liquifies again.

"Nice," Damian nods and brushes off his pants, "I guess that's it for today."

_"Fuckin' slave driver."_ I mutter under my breath.

"What?"

"You're a fucking slave driver, Damian."

"Hey, you're the one who insists on this shit, Zero, so don't try to pussy out now." He shakes his head and smiles because he knows damn well I'm right anyway. That's what I get for training with a guy who can run for almost two and a half days straight (he pushes for three days because he's probably a masochist).

I start to gather kindling for a fire, still a little winded, as Damian does a quick run of our immediate area for anything off. He sits a few feet from the smoldering fire I have going.

"Ro?"

I stretch my arms, wincing as my joints pop. "Damian?"

"You're right."

I throw myself onto the itchy grass with a grunt. "About?"

"There_ is_ a girl involved."

I almost choke on my own spit. Damn it all to fucking hell, I KNEW IT! "Oh? What's the shit on that?"

He pointedly looks down at his hands. "She's sort of... mine."

I scoff. "By that, do you mean that you _fucked?_"

"No. She's a wolf, too. I met her back at that hellhole, almost a month before you and I escaped. There was this... weird connection."

My eyes almost roll out of their sockets. "And now she's_ 'the one'_, huh? Is that what you're trying to say? So what happens when you get to her?"

He shakes his head. "She can help us, Zero, I know she can."

I take a deep breath. He _is_ my best friend, after all. I shouldn't get all pissed off, right? I should be... happy for him. I guess. "Look, do whatever the fuck you have to do, Damian, but if she tries any funny shit, I'll beat the shit outta her. Got it?"

He nods. I stare up at the trees, wondering what this chick looks like. This is Damian, though, so she can't be _that_ ugly. "Please tell me you know her name, D."

He chuckles lightly at that. "'Course I do. Her name's Alice."

Alice. Like Alice in Wonderland. Which indirectly means that she's gonna be_ fucking crazy_.

"Where are we meeting her?"

"She's at least three days away, in Nevada."

Oh fuck. Nevada? Las Vegas is in Nevada. What if Damian tries to fucking marry this Alice girl?

"We've still gotta get through three states, so we're gonna be running from now on. Get some sleep."

"Shouldn't _you_ be getting more sleep, though?" Because, you know, he's going to be the one running and all.

"I'll be alright, Z."

_Yeah, you'll be alright, Damian. After all, you're in loooove._ I can't tell if I think that bitterly or not. Which is sad because it's a _thought_ for fuck's sake and bitterness means I'm jealous. And I'm not. I think.

* * *

**okay, note to self: don't listen to QOTSA whilst writing cos it's distracting. **

**yeah, Mr. Wolf Dude is in looooove. BUT of course, i have a bit of a twist in mind for all that. **


	7. Chapter 7

There's a bright red Jeep waiting for us when we finally get to the "Welcome to Nevada" sign. The vehicle looks more like a fucking two-story building, actually. The driver's door swings open and a woman hops out, looking like she just got done working a corner somewhere. _No, stop judging the chick, you've gotta get along with her, just don't say anything!_ I almost want to punch myself. _That's_ the kind of bullshit I spew when I'm running on fumes.

"Damian!" She rushes over (with like five-inch high heels on) to my best pal, my amigo, my not-brother and smashes her lips onto his. I quickly turn away, resisting the urge to pretend to vomit. Or actually vomit.

"Alice, this Zero," Damian says as soon as she separates from him, scratching the back of his head. I can feel Alice's gaze like a death ray laser aimed at the back of my head. I plaster a weak smile and nod.

"Yo." Is all I can manage. Way to go, dumbass.

"Yeah." She takes one glance at my blood-caked clothes and narrows her eyes slightly.

Well. How charming.

"So, are we gonna get goin' soon?" Damian shifts his gaze from me to the crazy lady, obviously catching the sudden tension in the air. I, of course, get the back seat. She drives as insanely as she looks, going almost thirty miles over the limit and somewhere along the hour-long drive, she turns a corner and we're pretty much in the middle of fucking nowhere.

"We're here!" Alice says cheerfully. I look out of the windshield. By "here", she means a one story light blue house with pink shutters and lime green porch steps.

"I can sleep on the dirt outside, thanks." I mutter before I can stop myself. Damian looks over at me as if to say "you goddamn idiot", but gets out without a word. Alice looks slightly offended. "Nobody said you were welcome inside my house anyway."

"Yeah, _she's_ a keeper." I jump out onto the loose dirt and gravel.

"C'mon, Ro." Damian hitches his backpack onto his shoulder and heads into the horribly painted house. I can't tell if he's saying_ c'mon, get your ass in that house_ or_ c'mon, stop being an asshole._ Maybe both.

I get a strange feeling when I stand on the porch. Dread and anticipation. It gets worse as I step into the living room, which is immediately to the left of the front door. If I thought the outside was bad, the inside is just the epitome of horrible indoor decor and wall paint. And what the fuck would I know about any of that?

"Oh, is this him, Alice?" Someone comes in from the hallway in front of the door and puts her hands on her hips with a satisfied smile. "He isn't ugly at least, that's for sure!" She glances at me and gives me the same look Alice did before, narrowing her weirdly green eyes that glow slightly when the light gets caught in them. Creepy.

"Name's Calle," she says with a wide smile and shakes Damian's hand, "your room's the last door on the left."

Alice wraps both of her arms around on of Damian's and tries to drag him down the hall but he glances at me and back at her. "Where's Z gonna sleep, though?"

"Outside." Calle spits with a glare thrown my direction. I shrug and turn towards the door when Damian speaks up.

"You can crash with me, Ro. If you want."

I smirk to myself as I push past Calle and carefully squeeze between Damian and Alice. "Last door on the left, right?"

I can hear both women growl under their breaths._ Get used to it, cunts. _

"You should give them a chance." Damian says, a bit too quietly, as I glare up at the ceiling. It was about midnight and you'd think we would be sleeping, right?

"Are you telling me you don't sense it, D?" I'm lying on the floor right next to the dresser facing the door. He leans over so he can look at me. "What're you talking about?"

I almost punch a hole in the dresser. "She's_ got_ you, man."

"Who? Seriously, Ro, the fuck's your problem?" There's a crack in Damian's ever-present calm-cool-and-collected shell. Oops.

"My_ problem_, dear friend, is that you're too fuckin' busy_ fawning_ over some girl and are too damn swept up in her to notice that _your fuckin' life's in danger_, understand?"

He frowns down at me, the dim light of the lamp on the nightstand beside him casts unnecessary shadows across his face, which make him look much older, probably more intimidating if it were anyone else but me looking at him. I roll over onto my side, almost hating how my hipbone is digging into the flimsy carpet under me, and Damian turns off the lamp with a "_tch_" and an irritated sigh.

Hey, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am. Knowing him, though, he's gonna need _proof_ before he agrees with me. And what else am I if not a seeker of the truth? Damn straight, I'm gonna show my friend over there, muttering to himself, that the woman he's so fucking _smitten_ with is really a hideous bitch.

Of course he's not gonna like it at first. He might even hate me for a bit. But hey, it ain't my fault, is it? _Hell_ no.


	8. Chapter 8

If your best friend was too busy gawking at a woman to give you more than three-word answers to pretty much any question you asked him for almost two days, what would you do? That's right: you'd plot a way to subtly piss off aforementioned woman until she throws the first punch so your best friend won't think you're a total asshole.

"So, Alice," I say as I sit in the corner of the dining room with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich (which I haven't taken  
one single bite of), "how exactly did you meet Damian? His story is kinda retarded."

She, Calle and Damian all give me varying degrees of annoyed looks. "How did _you_ meet him?" She counters haughtily.

"We just happened to be caged in the same lab." I shrug and look at Calle, "I'm assuming you're some kind of experiment as well?"

She makes a face between a grimace and. a snarl. "And if I am?"

These ladies don't know how to give straight answers, but I can't be sure if it's just them or if it's actually women in general who do that.

"Damian and I's relationship is special and if I don't feel like telling you every single damn detail, deal with it." Alice flings some of her hair back with an attitude that screams "World's Hugest Bitch".

"Oh." I lean back against the wall and it's silent for several minutes. Dinner for the three of them is some weird looking  
pasta dish of some kind with gross vegetables piled on top. I might actually vomit.

"Can I talk to you outside, Zero?"

I look up so quickly that my neck almost snaps. Calle is standing behind her chair, annoyed. I almost glance at Damian but  
then I remember that we're kinda sorta fighting, so I keep my gaze on the back of Calle's mid-length dirty blonde hair.

Outside, the moon is half-full. Calle stops l a good twenty feet from the house and whirls around, our faces an uncomfortable five inches apart.

"Come at me, dick."

An obvious challenge for a fight. I feel myself smile as her eyes start to glow.

"Ladies first."

She scoffs, clenches her hands up and smashes her head against mine.

"Well damn, _interesting_ first move." I shove a hand in my pocket and take out a small wad of paper. Inside, a brand new razor shines in the dim moonlight. The blade passes through the skin of my knuckles easily. I clench my hand and the blood spikes up and hardens. Calle jumps back a few steps, on the defensive.

"Gotta face me head-on!" Taking one long step forward, I swing my bleeding hand at her face. Her blood drips to the ground, melting several holes in the earth itself. She smirks, which looks creepy now that she's sporting four long gashes across her face.

"What, you couldn't tell that my blood is toxic?"

"Does it look like I give a damn?" I get rid of the spikes and make the remaining blood into a long blade.

"You probably should, since all my bodily fluids can melt steel."

"That's gross as fuck." I rush at her and swipe up at her stomach, her blood spurting onto my shirt. The already ruined fabric starts to disappear before my eyes. Now I'm fighting shirtless. _Damn it, I _knew_ I should've gone with three layers today!_ "I don't suppose you'll let me run inside and grab a shirt, huh?"

"I might prefer you this way."

"You're addin' fuel to the fire here, bitch."

She licks her knuckles and grazes the skin just below my ribs. Immediately, the smell of burning flesh fills the air as my skin begins to slowly be eaten by Calle's toxic bullshit or whatever. You'd think I'd be grossed out, right?

"I could heal it, but I don't think I want to," Calle says as I straighten up.

"Don't think I'll need it." She stares with her mouth slightly agape when I seal the wound with a layer of hardened blood.

* * *

**i'll try really hard to make the rest of the fighting worthwhile.**


End file.
